Page 44 of The Alpha King’s Hidden Mute Mate

Mia came to see me while I was reviewing budget reports for border defense.

Truth was, I hadn't absorbed a single word.

My head was full of the look she'd given me that day I forced her to apologize—that disappointed, exhausted, completely defeated look—slowly, irreversibly seeping into my bones.

Why the hell did I say those vicious things?

When those words left my mouth, I saw her shoulders flinch, like she'd taken a punch to the face.

My wolf slammed against my ribs, roaring at me to chase after her. It didn't understand why I kept hurting her, didn't understand why I kept spewing that garbage even when I saw her eyes go red. It only knew she was our fated mate, the other half of our soul, and we were driving her away with our own hands.

I closed my eyes. Took a deep breath.

When the door opened, I didn't even look up. But that scent hit me first—earth and jasmine, that damned familiar smell that made my quill scratch a crooked line across the paper.

I looked up.

She stood in the doorway wearing a faded gray dress, hair pulled back carelessly, face white as paper. She looked thinner than last week, collarbones jutting like twin blades from her neckline. Dark circles under her eyes like she hadn't slept in days.

But she stood straight. Chin tilted up, like a flagpole that wouldn't bend.

She walked in, placed a note on my desk, then stepped back two paces, like I was contagious.

I glanced down at the note. The handwriting was shaky, pressed hard into the paper.

"Please let me go. I don't want anything. Just let me leave."

I stared at those words for maybe ten seconds.

Then rage shot up from my gut, burning my throat dry.

Let her go? What the hell did that mean? She couldn't stand being here?

What did she think this was? A hotel? Check in and check out whenever she wants?

"You want to leave?" My voice came out cold as ice water in a winter pond. "Where to? Back to that shithole orphanage? Back to being a mute servant?"

Her lashes trembled, but she didn't back down. She pulled out another note and set it on the desk.

"Anywhere is better than here. Please."

Please.

The word was a knife slipping between my ribs. She'd never begged me for anything. Not at that damned ceremony, not when I forced that kiss on her, not when I made her apologize to Leah. She just stood there, looking at me with those eyes full of extinguished starlight.

But now she was begging me. Begging me to let her go.

I should let her leave.

She wasn't happy here, and keeping her around wasn't doing me any good either.

But the palace could give her a comfortable life, food and clothes without worry, spare her from going back to that miserable orphanage to do hard labor.

That's what I was thinking, but what came out of my mouth was something else entirely.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I leaned back in my chair, arms crossed over my chest, using a tone that disgusted even me. "Come and go as you please? Think you can just move on to the next target since landing the king didn't work out?"

Her face went another shade paler. Lips pressed into a hard line, but no tears. I didn't know if that relieved me or pissed me off more.